Page 2845 - Week 08 - Thursday, 11 August 2016
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MR COE: And a more exciting time as well.
I also want to acknowledge the staff of the directorates and the staff of the ministers. They are always very accommodating with regard to briefings and with information requests. It is noticed, and we really are very grateful for all the responses to the letters and the questions on notice. It really does make a difference. There are very few tools available to the opposition. We cannot call directorates. We cannot call the subject matter experts that the government has access to. We do need to heavily rely upon correspondence, through questions on notice, freedom of information requests, et cetera. When those are delivered efficiently, it is very much appreciated.
I also want to specifically mention the Select Committee on Amendments to the Electoral Act. It was an interesting process. It is curious sometimes how decisions are made. It is a bit like a university assignment: it does not matter what happens; there is always the night before. Unfortunately, sometimes that is the way it happens here in this place. And sometimes it is not even the night before; sometimes it is five minutes before. But that select committee was a very important committee, and I think going to five fives is going to set up the ACT very well.
With regard to staff, I want to acknowledge Joe and Ian in particular from the leader’s office. Joe, you have done a wonderful job. I do not know how you do it. You are texting and calling people at 5.30 in the morning pretty much every single day and then you are handling media requests at night. It is quite an extraordinary feat and we really are grateful. And Ian, your very constant, very consistent and measured approach has kept things very calm in the corridor and has meant that we have been able to have a very strategic and very measured approach to how we go about our business here.
I thank the staff in my office, in particular Ruth and Ben. They are both lawyers, but they have both become subject matter experts in all sorts of things that they probably never expected to. They are absolutely faultless in their dedication and their commitment to what they do, and I am very grateful from both a professional point of view and also a personal point of view. I also thank Kate, who has been with my office for about a year or so, who has been a wonderful influence. She has tremendous experience from previous roles that she has had, and I very much value that. Danielle is off on maternity leave at the moment and has a lovely baby, Evelyn. I am very grateful for what she contributed to the office and I very much wish them very well.
I want to touch on the party. In particular I thank the members of the management committee and the branches, but I also thank Arthur, John, the past president, Peter Collins, and Tio Faulkner for what they have done for the party.
Finally, with regard to my family, it has been an interesting journey in these past four years. Soon after the 2012 election I was engaged; then I got married and now have two children. It has been a significant change of circumstances for me this time round compared to 2012. I am certainly feeling that in terms of my level of tiredness, but it has been a real blessing and a real honour to have Yasmin, Angus and Annabel in my life.
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